Page 103 of Straight to Me

As I walk, the noise amplifies. My feet falter in the corridor but I still can’t see him. As I round the final corner, men swarm the entire clubhouse like a zombie horde. Tall, burly guys all in their biker cuts, stand drinking, laughing and joking with each other.

At the bar area to my right, women in tight t-shirts and short shorts collect and serve drinks for the sea of bikers filling the room. A low hum spreads as their voices echo around the open space.

Some of the men move from the bar, taking their drinks, and clear a view to outside. There, out on the patio, I spot VP with a beer in his hand. He looks gorgeous. Under his cut, he wears a plain navy-blue t-shirt with his denim jeans and trainers. No more than an hour ago, he was naked underneath me.

The very thought makes my skin tingle.

A few bikers open their arms calling for him. A chorus of ‘Dea-no’ rings out across the parking area whilst they approach.

“Things are going to get wild,” Jack says, making me jump as he walks up from behind me.

“Shit, you scared me.”

“Sorry, Mads,” he laughs. “Drink?” I nod following him to the bar, grateful for a slightly familiar face. “Hope you’re ready for this?”

“Ready for, what?” I ask, eyes suddenly wide open.

“It’s all they’ve talked about since they knew Deano was making the trip. Just brace yourself, that’s all I’ll say.”

I look outside. A few of the biker giants have lifted VP to their shoulders. Before I know it, he’s carried away out of sight. “There you go, Jack.” The woman behind the bar passes two bottles of beer.

We turn and move towards a table close to the bar. Jack pulls out a chair for me to sit down. “Thank you.” I sit, waiting for him to join me on the other side.

“So, do you have to work later?”

“I’m on four days off. Worked out well with Deano being here,” Jack says, sitting back and taking a long sip from his bottle.

“Was work pissed off about your car?”

“Not really. I wrote my report this morning. They were satisfied that outlaws had tried to run me off the road. I didn’t mention why or who I had in the back.”

“Oh.”

Jack smiles. “It’s okay Mads,” he says, sitting forward. “Not my first time having to bend the truth.” He leans in, winking at me before taking another swig of his beer.

“How so?”

“It’s not always clean cut being on the force as well as having the Rippers as family. Sometimes they bleed together and it’s not so simple picking sides.” He takes another sip of his drink. “Sure is good to have Deano back now, though. Even if for only a few days.”

His eyes suddenly appear misty. It’s clear he’s missed his best friend all these years.

“You really care about him, don’t you.”

“He’s more like a brother than a cousin. Fuck, we did everything together growing up. Got in serious trouble as kids for stealing booze from the bar here. My mum banned us for a while, said we wouldn’t come back if we couldn’t be trusted to behave.”

I smile at the thought of VP and Jack causing mischief. “Deano would sneak us out the house though, he always was the crafty one. Always had my back, I always had his.”

My smile widens behind my bottle before asking, “And you didn’t ever want to join the club, given he and your dad are both members?”

VP said he was too smart for it, but I see how his face lights up as he talks about their childhood. My thumb absently strokes the cool side of my bottle where the water beads down.

“I don’t know. It never crossed my mind. I always wanted to stop the bad guys the right way.”

“What’s the right way?”

Sipping his drink, he shrugs his shoulders.

“I thought it was paying your debt. Serving time for the crime you’d committed. But it’s not that. The right way is to serve justice. In whatever form. These men here…” his hand waves to everyone around us, making me take a good look around at them all, “they do the same as me, just on different sides of the law. They’re not bad men. I’ve seen what bad men do.”

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